The former managing director at Versant Ventures, where she led the venture capital firm's investments in companies like now-public Achaogen Inc., has joined Palo Alto-based Venrock as a partner zeroing in on biotech and consumer health investing, according to Re/Code.

Venrock also brought on Doug Dooley as an investor, focused on big data, infrastructure, security and cloud companies. He has been with a number of tech companies, including most recently Coraid and Cisco.

One of a handful of high-profile biotech VCs, Samuels cut back on her work at Versant Ventures in fall 2011 to spend more time with her two young sons, including one diagnosed with an autism-like disorder, as Xconomy reported at the time. Some, however, took that as another signal that biotech VCs were pulling back.

"I think now is a fantastic time to invest, and I would love to be working full time investing," Samuels told Xconomy in 2011. "But I have the rest of my life for biotech — while the early intervention window for Luke (her son) is going to close in two years."

Samuels' move to Venrock comes as biotech investing is back in vogue. More than $2 billion have been invested in funds raised over the past 18 months by life sciences-centric VCs with Bay Area offices. That cuts through a wave of biotech IPOs since early 2013.

Venrock also is an active investor in the tech space.

"You now see a bunch of tech firms coming back into the health space," Venrock partner Bryan Roberts told Re/Code. "For all the talk of diversified funds going the way of the buffalo, an amazing number of people are now saying they are looking for interesting things to do in both (health and tech)."

Ron covers biotech, higher education & sports business.

Related links:

Industries:

Comments

If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.